Brendan has a very interesting post on good Chinese transliterations and bad Chinese transliterations. Check it out.
I wish he did posts like this more often (although I would probably settle for any posts more often…).…
04
Apr
2007
2007
Big Pair, Little Pair
China Unicom has teamed up with Samsung and hired the athletic Li brothers, 李大双 and 李小双, for this Shanghai subway ad.
双 means “double” or “pair.” If you were to translate the names of these two directly into English, you’d come up with “Big Pair” and “Little Pair.” Good to know they’ve both got a pair, but if I were named “Little Pair” I think I’d feel I got the short end of the stick.…
02
Apr
2007
2007
Chinese Sign Language: Fingerspelling
手语基础 cover
I recently picked up a book on Chinese sign language called 手语基础. “Practicality” was not a major consideration in the organization of the book; it seems to be written by linguists for linguists. If I needed the book to actually communicate in Chinese sign language I’d probably be pretty disgusted with it, but since my interest is primarily academic, I’m enjoying it.
In its second chapter the book talks about fingerspelling (also called manual alphabets). It runs …
01
Apr
2007
2007
Ethics and Instruments: a Photograph
This is a blind musician playing outside of Nanjing Road West (南京西路) Station in Shanghai. Two questions:
Is it OK to photograph a blind person without their knowing it? (I photographed this guy without asking, and then gave him 5 RMB.) The ethics of photography has always been an interesting subject to me, and it’s one I’ve actually really quite struggled with over the years, especially in the northern mountains of Thailand and in China’s Yunnan.
What is that funky
…
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